


The Train Station

by SuperfriendlyFox



Series: Pig in a Blanket on the Bed [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Humor, Kid Fic, Mild Sexual Content, Roleplay, SuperCorp, Trick or Treating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 20:00:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12540004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperfriendlyFox/pseuds/SuperfriendlyFox
Summary: Lena thought she would feel relieved once their pet count started going down.-(Some pets will die but joy will prevail.)





	The Train Station

**Author's Note:**

> The humor is a bit more toned down this time due to the subject matter. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> -
> 
> An unsavory character uses a slur against lesbians during the trick-or-treating scene, in case anyone needs to avoid. (But it will not go unpunished.)

Lena wakes up to whiskers tickling her nose and loud, insistent meowing.

She groans, wondering if the damn cat was so bored torturing her every day he’s now penciled her in at night as well.

But Cat is nudging a very stiff, cold rat toward her (Lena touches Minnie to make sure), and her stomach drops. At how it’ll upset the children. And Kara. Their five dogs. Their other cat. Their pig. Their turtle. The spiders and dust bunnies, probably.

Lena is _not_ upset. _It’s just a stupid rat, a pet rat that’s been living with me and Kara for seven years. Just a rat that rode around in my sweater pockets, that welcomed both our children home from the hospital, that let our son give it weird haircuts and was the regular guest of honor at our daughter’s tea parties. That was a willing and fearless conductor whenever the kids played with their train set._

Lena stares down at this dead rat, not quite knowing what to do, when Cat leans against her forehead. She jerks back to stare at him in surprise, finding two sweet, sincere tiny orbs boring into her own.

She lowers her head, and leans into him.

She feels a tear roll down her cheek, and then Cat licking it dry. She can’t help but giggle, even through their sadness, at his ticklish, sandpapery tongue.

After a few moments she moves away again, but not before softly stroking his fur.

“Kara,” she whispers, gently shaking her wife. “Kara darling, wake up. Wake up, please, this is important.”

“Mmpf,” Kara mumbles, then suddenly shoots up from the bed. “What is it? The kids? A nightmare? Are _you_ okay? Did Alex call? Do--”

“Kara,” Lena says, and lays her hand on Kara’s arm to soothe her. Then Lena picks up Minnie and holds the little rat in front of her wife like an offering.

Kara looks down at the tiny, stiff body. “Did you teach Minnie a new trick?”

“No, Kara. She...” Lena sighs. “You do know rats don’t usually live very long, right?”

Kara’s eyes widen. “Noooo... I didn’t, I thought-- don’t they live as long as dogs and cats?”

Lena shakes her head, and moves her hand to wipe away the tear running down her wife’s face.

*****

There’s no good way to tell a toddler and a kindergartner that the tiny rodent they’ve known and loved all their lives won’t be available for snuggles this morning.

The kids don’t want to believe it, so Lena places Minnie on a pillow on the floor in front of them, like they’re having a viewing at the morgue.

“We didn’t got to say goodbye!” wails Betty, her voice harmonizing with the five howling dogs in the room.

“You said goodnight to her,” Lena says, knelt down and holding her daughter’s hands. “When she left us, she had you in her heart.”

Betty smushes herself into Lena’s chest. Lena puts her arms around her and holds her tight as the little girl sobs.

The pets stare forlornly at their lost comrade. Kara strokes Jack’s hair. He glares at Minnie, his arms crossed over his chest, as if he can will her to leap up and climb back inside his shirt pocket.

*****

They hold a funeral for Minnie in their backyard.

A funeral in the rain.

Lena suggests they postpone till the sun comes out, but the kids aren’t having it.

Next she proposes umbrellas, but apparently umbrellas aren’t properly mournful, and Lena regrets letting the kids watch _Mary Poppins_ last night.

Minnie is laid to rest in a tiny coffin, an actual, orange cardboard coffin they had bought at the arts and crafts store for Halloween. Lena can’t see how burying Minnie in a treat box marked “Beware!” and “Boo!”, decorated with fake cobwebs to boot, can be construed as properly mournful but she’s long since learned not to question family decisions, at least out loud.

To keep Minnie’s coffin from collapsing into a soggy mess, a sheet of cellophane is draped around it, cellophane printed with goblins and ghouls and won’t Minnie be thrilled to take those with her to the afterlife.

Lena suspects if she keeled over right now the kids would shove her in her waterproof sleeping bag and plop her in the ground next to Minnie. But her wife, her wife would make sure Lena received a proper burial, she’d help the kids glue glow-in-the-dark ghost decals on the bag to make it properly mournful.

Lena gives a solemn speech about dust returning to dust and whatnot, all the while thinking of the other night’s News Special Report(!) on National CIty’s burgeoning rat problem.

She stares at the tiny grave, a seashell serving for a marker, at her dripping children-- her sobbing little girl and stoic little boy-- her soaked wife who’s trying to keep it together, the sopping pig and drenched dogs and cats, the turtle sloshing around in a puddle...

And feels grateful for her family.

*****

“Minnie lived way longer than a rat has any right to,” says Lena, which sets Betty to bawling again, and Lena wonders why her normal genius turns to complete stupidity whenever it comes to comforting children.

“Mummy just means rats don’t tend to live more than a few years,” Kara explains. “Minnie had quite a good run with us.”

“Where did Minnie go?”

Lena picks Betty up and carries her into her room, with Jack and Kara, and the dogs and the cats and the pig, following behind.

Turtle starts the long crawl after them, before Kara remembers and speeds back to fetch him.

Lena sets Betty down and pulls out the train set. The kids and Kara assemble the tracks while Lena rummages through ~~her~~ the kids’ Star Wars action figures. She palms Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Kara looks over. “So I’m Han in this scenario?”

“Well, I’m Leia, and she loves Han.”

“I know.” Kara giggles.

Lena smirks. “I see we’re role-playing tonight.” She picks out a couple of Ewoks.

Kara snorts. “You’re actually comparing our children to Ewoks?”

Lena checks to make sure the kids are consumed with the train set and aren’t listening. “The adorable to annoying ratio seems about right.”

Next Lena goes through Betty’s stuffed animals, selecting a mouse and a handful of others.

Lena places the assorted figures on one platform. “Life, it’s kind of like a train set,” she tells the kids as she sits cross-legged on the floor with them. “It’s a series of stations, and up until yesterday all of us were together at the same one.”

“Now, there’s a lot of debate as to where these stations actually are. Some people believe the next one for all of us is either up there--” she points to the ceiling-- “or down there” --she points at the floor. “And if that’s true--” she gestures toward the floor again, _emphatically_ \-- “that’s where Grandma’s going.”

She takes hold of the stuffed mouse, making it dance around among Leia and Han and the Ewoks and animals. “Minnie was at this station with us a very long time. Honestly she ought to have left us years ago, but I think she tried to stick around for you and Jack as long as possible.”

“But yesterday--” Lena moves the mouse to the next terminal on the track-- “Minnie had to go on.” She starts to relocate the rest of the toys next to the mouse. “And someday all of us will be there with her, too.”

“And Grandma?” asks Jack.

“That would be a stretch. But for all intents and purposes, yes, let’s say Grandma, too. Kara, could you please fetch me Jabba the Hutt?”

Kara giggles, gets up and grabs the bulbous toy, and places it with the others.

“And Nana!” adds Betty.

“Nana, of course,” agrees Lena. “Kara? Mon Mothma?”

Kara jumps up again.

“So,” Lena continues once Mon Mothma has joined the gang. “We’ll all be together again someday, but for now--” she moves everything but the toy mouse back-- “we have to let Minnie do her own thing.”

“But she’ll be lonely.” Betty starts to cry.

“No no, Betty, she’s not alone--” Lena comforts Betty while Kara leaps to her feet and grabs more stuffed animals from the bed. Kara places them around the mouse.

“Betty Boo, Minnie’s got other friends now. We just can’t see them ‘cause we’re still over here.” Kara points to the figures at the first station. “But Minnie’s having a good time, I promise.”

“Really?”

Lena strokes Betty’s hair, and gives her forehead a kiss. “Really, darling. But Minnie knows we’re still here and she wants us to be happy. She doesn’t want you to be sad, okay?” Lena tickles her daughter under her chin, and Betty can’t help but giggle.

*****

The kids ask to sleep with them that night, and although that happens more often than not Lena’s touched that they actually asked permission, as if Lena and Kara are the ones who run things around here.

...

Lena wakes up, needing to pee, and thinks back to when she lived alone and was lonely and sad, but had a great big, _clean_ bed all to herself.

She reluctantly lets go of Kara, who’s holding Jack who’s holding Betty who’s holding her dog Comet who’s five times her size. With Rover (Jack’s dog), draped over the whole shebang.

Cat begins where Rover ends, and Lena blows a puff of air to move Cat’s tail off her mouth. Smushed together in the small space between her and Kara lie their pit bulls Wally and Petunia, and Lena carefully maneuvers her knees to avoid waking them.

She turns to find Punkie’s butt in her face. She swears their shaggy mutt’s head had been on Jack’s belly when the night started. In the nick of time she dodges a fart and steps carefully off the bed, just in case Turtle decided to leave his cage and crawl over to them during the night.

Their pig Charlotte sleeps peacefully on the edge of the bed, where there’s the most room, and Lena can’t help but stroke her chin, while she watches their tuxedo cat Alfred nibble on Kara’s toes.

 _When I wished for a loving family I should have been more specific,_ she thinks, but with a grin.

...

She returns from the bathroom with an ache in her heart at the sight of Cat holding Betty’s stuffed mouse between his paws, as for the first time in seven years there’s no little rat in their home for Cat to cuddle.

*****

The next morning Kara waits till the kids are off playing with their menagerie before finally allowing herself to break down.

“Kara.” Lena puts her arms around her wife. “I wouldn’t be opposed to getting a new rat, if it would help you and the kids feel better.”

“No, I don’t want one, I don’t want any more pets,” Kara sobs, and Lena shoos the look of relief off her face. “I don’t want to do this anymore, I don’t want any more pets because it’s too hard when they die. I mean, I knew it would happen eventually but I didn’t really think of it.”

“No one does, Kara. No one gets a pet, or starts a relationship, or _has a child,_ thinking something will go wrong.”

“I shouldn’t be taking this so hard. I lost my parents, my whole world, and here I am, bawling over a rat.”

“Not just any rat,” Lena says, rubbing Kara’s back. “Minnie was part of our family. We _made_ her part of our family.” _You made her part of our family but I stopped minding after a year or so._ “It’s totally understandable to cry over her, Kara.”

Kara nods her head, still sobbing.

*****

Every day the kids bring the pets graveside to visit with Minnie.

Betty always brings flowers, and Lena adds to her chore list to replace the flower beds.

Jack’s offering is his radio-controlled car, and Lena’s sure she never once saw him use it without Minnie in the driver’s seat.

*****

Kara and Betty go on a rare walk alone to talk.

“Mommy? Why do there got to be diffent train stations? Why can’t we be at the same forever and ever?”

Kara thinks a moment. “Well Betty, that would be like playing _Chutes and Ladders_ with only ladders. There’s no point to the game if there aren’t any chutes, right? We couldn’t play only with ladders.”

Betty doesn’t even need to think about this. “We could.”

That gives Kara pause. _From the mouths of babes to Rao’s ears._ “Huh. I guess we could. But it wouldn’t make for a very interesting game, would it?”

“It would.”

Kara laughs at the serious look on her daughter’s face. “Well, we’ll just have to suggest that to Mummy next family game night.”

“Mommy!” Betty shrieks, and points to a dark shape moving in the bushes.

Kara grabs Betty and whirls her out of the path of the--

Dirty little puppy that peeks out at them from the foliage.

Kara laughs and sets her daughter down as the puppy waddles out toward them, then falls over its own feet.

Betty toddles over to it and opens her arms as the puppy rallies, then falls into her. “Mommy!” Betty checks downstairs. “We can name him Buttercup.”

Kara bends down. “Sweetheart, we don’t want Mummy to have a stroke.” She waits till her daughter looks her in the eye. “We promised Mummy no more pets, right?”

Betty nods earnestly.

“He doesn’t have a collar... hmmm, how about you and I bring this little guy to the vet?” Kara picks up the puppy and cradles him to her chest. “If he doesn’t have a chip, we’ll take some pictures, and then you and Jack can tell all your friends at school about him. I’m sure Mummy will be thrilled that _another_ little boy or girl’s family will be getting a new dog.”

*****

Lillian sits chained to a table in a small visiting room of the jail she will forevermore call home. She’s dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, her hair set in two small pigtails, held together by tiny orange and black scrunchies.

A prison guard opens the door to allow Lena, Jack and Betty in.

“Grandma!” yells Jack, scurrying to hug her side, while Betty waddles up to attach herself to Lillian’s leg.

Lena scrunches up her nose in distaste, but waits a few moments before finally pulling Jack away and picking up Betty. “All right, that’s enough love for Grandma, let’s sit and talk, shall we?”

She takes a seat across from Lillian. Jack clambers up and Lena holds both her children in her lap. Betty takes one look at Lillian’s hair and squeals with joy. “Granma!”

Lillian turns first one side of her head toward her granddaughter, then the other, showcasing each scrunchie. “Yes, I’m wearing them Betty darling, thank you again! I’m the envy of my cellblock.”

“Granma, why won’t you go to the train station with us?” asks Betty with big eyes.

“The train station?” Lillian asks. “Are you going on a trip? What’s wrong with taking the private jet, why would you choose to mingle with--”

“Minnie left us,” Jack explains. “She’s waiting for us at the train station.”

“Oh, I see,” says Lillian. “That--” she can’t help the look of disgust that flashes across her face, but quickly masks it with a practiced, polite look for her grandchildren “--lovely little rodent of yours, who so sweetly said hello to me at your wedding.”

“Vow renewal ceremony,” supplies Lena.

“Whatever. The rat’s... gone?”

“Yes. Sadly,” Lena says, and holds her kids tighter.

“And she’s waiting for you all at the train station. The one _I_ won’t be going to. I see.” She raises her eyebrow at her daughter.

Lena raises one back, and coolly returns her mother’s gaze.

“Mummy said we could got another rat,” says Betty.

“But Mommy said no, it’s too hard, and she was crying,” adds Jack.

“How did you two--” Lena looks at her children in bewilderment, before understanding creeps in. “Oh. Super hearing.” She rolls her eyes.

Lillian smirks, glad to see her daughter suffer in small, child super-powered, pet-themed ways.

*****

They decorate the windows and doors with fake cobwebs and spiders, and string orange lights in the bushes and trees.

Lena wonders why the _real_ spiders that live rent-free in their home can’t be roped into service just this once, instead of always popping out of nowhere to scare her while she’s in the shower.

Once Jack was old enough to go trick-or-treating they started setting up a candy dispenser outside, since they wouldn’t be home to hand out the goodies. Lena had rigged the dispenser to recognize fingerprints to stop less-than-honorable treaters from going back for seconds.

Kara had tried convincing her that the contraption refusing to give out a second helping was enough of a deterrent. But Lena rationalized that they weren’t just rationing their candy supply, they were molding little minds. So a positive sign would trigger an über-realistic goblin to fling itself out the window, which would in turn set Punkie, Rover, Comet, Wally and Petunia to hysterical barking.

Every year they come home to find candy scattered all over the porch in the offender’s haste to flee, and, last year, a little puddle of pee.

...

Betty had insisted on going as Grandma, so Lena had ordered a toddler jailbird costume over the internet. Kara received and opened the package and scolded her wife-- “You know that’s not what she meant, babe” --and found her a right-sized quaint silver dress, to which Lena supplied a pearl necklace, which hung down to Betty’s belly button. On Halloween afternoon she worked Betty’s hair into a classy updo.

Kara now fits Alfred into his special black sweater and booties that hide his white patches of fur, before he settles into the window seat for the evening to hiss at the neighborhood children.

Kara checks Jack’s room as she passes and sees him outfitting himself as Kylo Ren, and wonders if she and Lena ought to worry about anything. She opens their bedroom door to see Lena putting her own hair up into Hoth-era Princess Leia braids.

“Again? I thought we decided on Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman.”

Lena momentarily breaks her concentration in the mirror to glance at-- and then ogle-- her gorgeous wife. “I realized _all_ the parents will be going as Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman. Besides, I’m still mourning Carrie Fisher.”

So Kara feels compelled to _once again_ go as Han, but it’s totally worth it. _(”You look dashing, darling. We’ll have to explore this further tonight.”)_

They set out, the Solo family and the ~~jailbird~~ society maven, and hit most houses, as they live in a friendly neighborhood with lots of kids, and people who love kids. There are a few bad eggs but by now they know which houses to avoid.

...

It’s getting late.

They plan to pass by grouchy Mr. Fitch’s as usual but run into Jack’s classmate Charlie and his vexing mom Mrs. Hagglebottom, and are somehow pulled in by their tractor beam. Lena can’t help but give Charlie’s mom the once-over. All bodies are beautiful, she thinks, but nobody needs Mrs. Hagglebottom ruining their Wonder Woman fantasies.

Lena’s surprised once they reach Mr. Fitch’s front steps and the grass hasn’t fallen away to pull them down into an acid-filled moat.

Mr. Fitch opens his door with a sinister grin, for some reason eager to hand out candy to the same children he yells at whenever they enter his yard to retrieve a lost ball. Lena resolves to throw whatever he hands the kids in the trash, whether it passes wrapper inspection or not.

“Well well well, a very scary clown,” says Mr. Fitch to Charlie.

“I’m a pirate.”

“Whatever.” He hands the boy a Snickers bar (“fun”-sized, the cheapskate), then turns to Kara and Lena, ignoring their kids.

“So, the lesbo family finally deigns to knock on my door. I see you parade those mangy animals by my house morning and night. But not the rat... anymore...” Kara and Lena quickly cover the kids’ ears, as they know where this is going. “Finally kicked the bucket, eh?”

“Our children’s pet rat passed away after a long and love-filled life,” seethes Kara.

Mr. Fitch holds Snickers bars out, purposely out of reach of Betty, so Jack has to grab hers for her. Mr. Fitch smiles a mirthless, toothless grin. “Disgusting, filthy vermin. There oughta be a law.”

“Domesticated rats keep themselves perfectly clean,” Lena coolly replies, and narrows her eyes at the slovenly state of Mr. Fitch’s foyer.

“And they’re sweet and smart and playful and affectionate!” adds Kara, opening her mouth to say more, but Lena places a hand at the small of her back, eager to leave.

“There oughta be a law ‘gainst lesbos having kids,” continues Mr. Fitch, and Lena would be hard pressed to restrain her wife from using her heat vision now, save for the fact Charlie and Mrs. Hagglebottom are witnesses.

“What are lesbos, Mommy?” asks Charlie.

“Hush, we’ll talk about it later,” whispers Mrs. Hagglebottom, raising her voice again as she turns to smile at Mr. Fitch-- “See you at the next neighborhood meeting!” --and Lena could just sock her.

Finally the door closes on them, and Jack pipes up. “Mummy, can we egg him?”

Mrs. Hagglebottom beholds Jack with horror, then turns to Lena and Kara like she’s going to file a report with the thought police.

Lena kneels down by her son. “Of course not, Jackie, what a horrible thing to say. _Of course_ we’re not going to egg Mr. Fitch’s house, or _anyone’s,_ for that matter. Didn’t your mommy and I teach you better than that?”

They’re kind of trapped with the Hagglebottoms for a few more houses before they can finally say goodnight. Kara starts to herd the kids toward their street but Lena stops her.

“Kara, let’s pop in the store real quick, I think we only have half a carton of eggs at home, and that’s certainly not enough.”

“Sure,” says Kara. “Are we baking a cake or something?”

“Something,” Lena agrees.

In the store Lena makes a big deal out of checking the dates on the egg cartons. “Well, none of them are rotten but I guess they’ll have to do.”

“Why would we want rotten eggs, Lena? Ew.”

Lena just hums. Then, on an afterthought, “You know, let’s just mosey down the paper products aisle...”

Once there Lena grabs a twelve-pack of toilet paper.

“Lena, shouldn’t we wait till our Costco trip for that?”

“Oh, we’ll be making our normal run, don’t worry.”

They check out and leave the store, and “Lena, um, our house is this way-- Lena?”

Somehow they find themselves in front of Mr. Fitch’s house again. “Oh, look where we are.” Lena hands Jack a whole carton of his own (”You know what to do.”) and kneels down by Betty, showing her how to gently hold an egg in her hand, and how to aim it. (”Thank God for super strength.”)

Kara finally realizes what’s going on and opens the toilet paper pack, ready to do her part. Lena instructs the kids. “Jackie, I’m sorry I spoke to you that way in front of Mrs. Hagglebottom. But you’ve got to learn, the first rule of business is, when you’re planning to do something you know is _technically_ wrong, deny, deny, deny.”

They get pretty far into the cartons and the toilet paper pack before Mr. Fitch flings open his door in a fury, and as the street is deserted they hold on tight while Kara super speeds them out of there. Mr. Fitch is left shouting at a blur, as a clean getaway is made.

They arrive home doubled over with laughter, to candy scattered all over their porch.

*****

It’s date night, so James comes over, and Winn too, since now that Jack is flying, and trying to teach Betty (”Jack James Winslow Luthor-Danvers! Don’t _ever_ let me catch you chucking your sister into the air again!”), one babysitter just doesn’t cut it anymore.

“James, Winn,” Lena begins.

“We _know,”_ groans James. “Don’t feed the kids ice cream.”

Lena gives them a stern look, Kara waves, and the door closes.

Winn immediately whirls around. “Yeessssss! We are gonna stay up all night playing _Call of Duty_. Bros before hos, am I riiiiiight?” He laughs, and holds out his hand for a high five.

James buries his face in his hands. _Amateur._

“What are hos?” asks Jack.

“Um, ah, they’re, that is... your moms don’t need to know about that, riiiiiight?” Winn looks to James for help, but James just shakes his head and sighs.

Jack crosses his arms over his chest and glares at Winn, and Betty mimics him.

“I’ll, I’ll just get that ice cream out of the freezer,” Winn concedes, and heads to the kitchen.

*****

Lena and Kara check in at the hotel they’ve spent date night at every week since Jack was born.

The front desk clerk is rather new. He nods at Lena. “That’s an interesting hairstyle. Looks just like... like...”

Lena smirks, reaching up to touch the bun on one side of her head, then the other.

The clerk pulls at his collar, then gestures toward her long, forest green coat. “You um, don’t happen to have a gold bikini on under there?”

Lena regards him with disdain. “I should say _not,”_ she scoffs. “That’s a _completely_ different hairstyle.”

Kara takes their room key and leads her grumbling wife toward the elevator _(”He shouldn’t be allowed to call himself a fan, Kara.”),_ turning back to the clerk and mouthing, “sorry.”

*****

Once the door closes behind them, Lena lets her coat drop to the floor, revealing her flowing white gown.

Kara drops her parka on the floor and grabs for the blaster off her gun belt. She advances on Lena, and pins her up against the door. She leans in, sticking the blaster back in its holster and letting her hands run down Lena’s sides to her waist. Kara nips at Lena’s neck. Lena yelps, then maneuvers for a kiss, but Kara pulls back.

Lena affects offense. “Why, you stuck up... half-witted... scruffy-looking... Nerf-herder!”

Kara smirks. “Don't get excited, Your Highness.”

Lena scoffs. “Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited.”

Kara giggles. “Sorry, sweetheart. Good thing we have loads of time then.” She picks Lena up and throws her over her shoulder.

Lena smacks Kara’s ass as she’s carried to the bed. “Stop that, you _scoundrel!”_

“Stop what?” Kara asks innocently as she gently lowers Lena and lays her on the bed.

Lena suppresses a giggle. “Stop that. My mind is dirty.”

Kara smirks again. “My mind is dirty, too. What are you afraid of?”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “Afraid?”

Kara licks Lena’s neck, then takes a bite. “You're trembling.”

Lena lets out a cry. “I'm not trembling.”

“You like me _because_ I'm a scoundrel. There aren't _enough_ scoundrels in your life.”

“I happen to like nice women,” Lena protests.

“I'm a nice woman.”

“No, you're not. You're-- ohhhhhhhhh, oh Kara! I mean, Han!”

Lena can barely contain herself as Kara fixes her hyperdrive.

The pressure in Lena’s command center builds and she can’t take it anymore. “Kar-- _Han,_ I need you, I need you right now!”

Kara’s eyes glint with mischief. “Look, Your Worshipfulness. Let’s get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person-- me.”

Lena fights to control her breathing. _“Kara._ This is the part where the whole audience clenches because the rebel base is about to explode. Which I _will,_ if you don’t fire your proton torpedo into my trench _right now.”_

Kara uses the Force to make a precise hit on Lena’s thermal exhaust port, which sets up a chain reaction, and causes Lena to blow.

*****

Cat stops eating.

Lena makes an appointment with the vet. Kara’s called off on an emergency, and Lena curses the alien bank robber nitwits who have interfered with her family life yet again.

Cat disappears, and Lena could really use Kara’s heartbeat detection skills right about now. Lena searches the house. She finally finds him by shining a flashlight under the porch.

“Cat, I’m sorry you’re feeling bad. But we’re not going to leave you down here so we can add your skeleton to our house's Halloween vibe. You can make this easier on me by coming out on your own... Cat... please... I’m asking you nicely... _please_ be a good boy for me for once...”

But Cat just blinks at her disinterestedly. Lena groans and grumbles and starts the long crawl toward him, through muck, insects, and Jack’s lost Matchbox cars.

...

Cat’s diagnosed with feline leukemia and it’s pretty far along. The vet lists their options but none of them are good.

...

Kara comes home and Lena fills her in.

“He’s already in a lot of pain, I don’t want him to suffer.”

“No,” Kara agrees, as tears run down her face.

“And if we try to drag it out... I don’t want to give the kids false hope, Kara. They already know something’s wrong.”

Kara nods, and wipes her face. Lena puts her arms around her.

*****

Betty is harder to convince.

“Sweetheart, I know you want to keep Cat.” Lena feels a sad sense of deja vu as she kneels in front of her daughter and holds her hands. "I know Cat wants to stay here with you and Jack and all his furry brothers and sisters.”

“And Charlotte and Turtle.”

“Yes, sweetie. But Cat’s in a lot of pain, baby, and you don’t want that, right?”

Betty shakes her head, hard. “I don’t want Harry Potter to hurt.”

“No, baby. That’s why we’re going to do what’s best for Cat and let him go.”

“But I don’t wanna say goodbye,” Betty sobs.

Jack breaks away from Kara to bend down and put his arms around his sister. “We’re not saying goodbye. We’re saying 'later, till we’re with him and Minnie at the train station."

*****

The kids want to take all the pets with them when they go to help Cat over the Rainbow Bridge. Lena tries to explain that they can’t, but Kara feels they should, and Lena sees no point in arguing today.

Once Kara and Lena and the kids are led into the office, the rest of the pets waiting for them in the foyer (Lena plans another substantial donation to the shelter), they place Cat down on the cold, metal table. Kara lifts the kids onto there as well so they can say their final goodbyes. Cat rubs his face against each of theirs in turn, and they stay strong for him. Kara strokes his back in the rough way he likes, and he manages enough strength to push into her hand one last time.

Then he looks at Lena, and holds out his paw.

Lena takes it, blinking back tears, and realizes that as much as Cat antagonized her, in a way, he was always _her_ cat. She was the one who adopted him and brought him home. She was the one who decided not to turn around and bring him back. She was the one he comforted all those nights she was alone and pregnant, worrying she was about to become a widow. A widow with a kid or two and a whole zoo full of animals she would have to care for on her own, in Kara’s memory.

The vet sticks in the needle, and Cat goes to sleep, part of his loving family around him, the rest waiting in the foyer... and at the train station.

*****

Cat is laid to rest in a shoe box. A box that used to contain Lena’s Italian leather boots, to be exact, which is oddly fitting, as Cat had pooed in those boots a few times when he was especially pissed at her.

It’s a bright, sunny day, and Lena feels it’s Cat’s message to her not to mourn too much, that instead it’s proper to feel glad about a life well lived, and well loved.

But she and Cat hardly ever saw eye to eye, and she can’t help but bust out crying, like the bad mom she is, as she collapses into a heap onto the ground, her kids trying to comfort _her,_ with her wife holding all three of them close, and the dogs and leftover cat and pig attaching themselves in a scrum around them.

And Turtle booping her toe with his nose.

*****

Evening sets in.

Lena sits alone in front of the two small graves, trying to hold back tears once again. She thinks of all the times Cat snuggled with her babies as they were learning to talk, listening to them babble for hours, and meowing back.

Feline leukemia, schmookemia. Lena knows what really killed Cat. Cat, who had gently held Minnie in his paws every night of her life with them, of course had chosen to die in the most poetic way possible, to die of a broken heart.

“Harry Potter... I _miss_ you. I’m sorry I never called you by your name. I’m sorry I was so petty. You knew I didn’t want you. I shouldn’t have resented you for not liking me for that.”

Charlotte waddles up to her, grunting, and Lena scratches behind her ears as the tears finally fall.

“Yes, Charlotte, I know it’s the circle of life, blah blah. I know Harry Potter had a great one. I know he’s waiting with Minnie for us at the next train station.” She puts her arms gently around the pig and gives her a soft hug. “But don’t _you_ dare leave me.”

Charlotte squeals, and roots in her armpit, and Lena can’t help but laugh.

But only because she’s ticklish.

*****

Lena takes Kara on a drive into the city that weekend, and they park in a lot quite far from L-Corp.

Kara is surprised when they wind up in front of an animal shelter, the shelter where Lena got Cat.

“I know I should be glad our pet count is going _down,”_ says Lena. “But I feel this strange need to adopt another cat, in honor of Harry Potter. Maybe this time, one where the antagonism/affection ratio is more in my favor.”

Kara lets go of Lena’s hand and puts her arms around her. “I’ve never heard you call him that.”

“I know.”

“He loved you, you know.”

“I know.”

“You loved him.”

“Yes. Although I didn’t really realize it till just recently.”

*****

“We’d like to see the cat that’s been here the longest, please,” says Lena, and Kara nods.

They’re led to a large lump hiding under a blanket.

Kara gently lifts the edge. “Ooh... she looks a bit like Harry Potter, don’t you think?”

“She’s a tortoiseshell,” agrees Lena. “But she’s a longhair, we agreed on a shorthair, Kara.”

“We did, but, she _has_ been here the longest,” Kara points out.

“Let’s go see the _second-_ longest,” Lena suggests.

“Aw look, Lena! She’s licking my fingers!”

Lena buries her head in her hands, and wonders how it is that Cat is still torturing her from beyond the grave, sending her a long-haired cat.

*****

Jack says he’s the man of the house now that Harry Potter’s gone, and while Lena would laugh at the image of her erstwhile feline antagonist as the man of _anything,_ she can’t help but wince at yet another antiquated notion Jack has picked up from society.

Even more disconcerting is that Jack starts calling them Mum and Mom, and Lena’s unprepared for the sense of loss she feels at that. Their little boy, no longer quite so little.

...

Lena can’t sleep, and can’t help sniffling, trying to hold back her tears. She snorts in frustration. She’s gone from Bad Mom to Crybaby Mom in the space of a week.

Jack pads into the room carrying his sleeping sister, Rover and Comet on his heels. Jack lifts Betty over his head to set her on the bed and she instinctively snuggles close to a sleeping Charlotte. Jack clambers onto the bed, the dogs leaping up behind him, and crawls over to Lena.

“Mum, why you crying?”

“It’s nothing, sweetheart.” She smiles, and reaches out to stroke his cheek.

“Tell me Mum, I’m the man of the house, I can fix it.”

Lena bursts into tears and pulls her son into a tight hug. “Oh baby, I don’t want you to have to be the man, to grow up so fast. I want you to enjoy your childhood. I don’t want you to worry. About anything. And I want to still be Mummy for a good long while, is that okay?"

“Sure Mummy,” says Jack, and plants a big wet kiss on the tip of her nose.

Lena giggles and pulls the covers over and around her son. She gazes at her daughter, who looks so blissed out, conked out next to Charlotte. Lena would love to leave her there but can't risk Charlotte accidentally kicking Betty in her sleep, so she reaches down and softly pulls her daughter away from the pig. She holds Betty close, as Jack now maneuvers the covers around them all, and Kara shifts in her sleep, pushing back farther into Lena’s side.

Their new cat Minerva pads over and licks Lena’s hair. Lena closes her eyes, and thinks she’s done crying for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> >^..^<  
> =^.^=


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